One of the most common, and greatest, mistakes staffing firms make is placing an overly large focus on active applicants, while almost completely ignoring the database of talent they’ve acquired over the years. Sure, some might email or text blast the database regularly, but the message is almost always a version of
- "Are you looking for work?"
- "Do you have any friends you can refer?"
- "Here’s a job I need to fill—do you want it?"
There’s nothing wrong with these types of messages. In fact, they are a critical part of what we do. And I agree that some form of communication is better than none at all, which is what happens with most staffing firms once a candidate is no longer considered "active." But it’s not enough— and how we approach our database starts at the very beginning of the recruiting process.
Nurturing an Ongoing Relationship
Think of a social media influencer. Influencers monetize their reach—either by amassing enough views to generate income from the social media sites, by selling products and services, or a combination of both. Influencing is a business, just like staffing. The influencer is trying to attract followers that will engage with their content so that they can generate more revenue. So, an influencer’s followers are basically the equivalent of candidates or prospects in our world. And yet, the most successful ones approach their followers much differently than we do candidates.
First, they look at their followers as an ongoing relationship—not a shortterm interaction. Top influencers focus on building a community, not a database. They know that the longer people stay engaged, the more likely they are to generate revenue either by clicking and viewing content or buying products and services. And the more they feel like they are part of a community, the more likely they are to refer their friends and family.
Influencers also know that followers won’t stay engaged if they are constantly being sold to. They must give the follower reasons to keep coming back to their page. This means continually generating new content that is of value to followers, interspersed with the occasional sales pitch.
This is basically the exact opposite of what we do in staffing. We get an order we need to fill and we look for someone that will fill it—usually outside of our database. We are constantly "selling" to talent, asking them if they want to take a job we have or if they know anyone they can refer. Most staffing firms are highly transactional in interactions with candidates, with the most common excuse being "I don’t have time." We place the highest value on the most active candidates and do little to keep them engaged with us once they are no longer immediately looking for work or we’ve determined they can’t fill the jobs we have right now.
Adapting the Influencer Business Model
What if we took the influencer model and applied it to staffing? What if, instead of looking at new applicants as candidates, we viewed them as new community members? What if we spent more time cultivating a community and less time just filling our database?
Well, there are staffing and recruiting firms out there that do just that. And you know what happens? They get more referrals. They fill positions quicker and with better talent. They have much longer tenure in their positions. They have happy and loyal clients. They are more profitable. They are less stressed.
The way that staffing has traditionally approached talent doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to someone looking from the outside: "Why do you have more than 100,000 candidates in your database, but you are spending all your time, money, and effort on new applicants?" "Why does that new candidate seem so valuable when they first apply and interview, but in less than a week they are ignored?"
Turning your database into a community isn’t easy, but the payoff can be huge. It all begins with viewing that new applicant not as a transactional, short-term candidate, but as a new, long-term member of your talent community.
This article was published in Staffing Success magazine by the American Staffing Association. I'm a contributor to the Recruiting Today series.
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